Season 9 of “Roseanne:” is one of the most jarring shifts in narrative tone and series concepts I’ve ever seen. Throughout the entire series we’re told time and time again that Dan and Roseanne are humongous fans of two shows: Bonanza and The Beverly Hillbillies. Someone thought it’d be a great idea if the final season of “Roseanne” took off from “The Beverly Hillbillies,” thus betraying every sensibility the show once had. Season 9 is an unwatchable calamity of nonsense.
It varies from really bad comedy to really awful melodrama, and paints its originally lovable characters as parodies of themselves. The once subtly dumb Mark is now a complete and total buffoon, Becky is utterly irrelevant in the skin of the poorly underused Sarah Chalke, DJ is given a boring love interest and suddenly wants to become a filmmaker, and all of the supporting characters are completely idiotic offering no laughs.
Director James Watkins survival thriller is one part mediocre social commentary, two parts solid thriller, and one part moronic drama. “Eden Lake” seems to want to be it all, offering characters that simply can’t let their confrontation with rowdy teens go, all the while hinting at the complexities of dysfunctional violent home and how they breed violence within their confines. But much of that is destroyed when Watkins seeks to turn his juvenile villains in to scowling black and white monsters motivated on violence and violence only. There aren’t any shades of grey to them until the very end, and by then the movie has become so ludicrous it’s hard to soak in the thoughts on the vicious cycle of violence.
Director Aviral Kapoor’s “Rocket” is a pretty serene and cute short film about a father and a son that realize they’re much more alike than they’ve ever given each other credit for. In “Rocket,” director Kapoor sets down on a young boy named Kevin whose life is filled with loneliness occasionally interrupted by bullies who make a habit of beating him up every day after school. When Kevin returns home, he finds his father James doting over inventions while Kevin is forced to take to his own amusement, and figure out his own problems.
Short and much more succinct, director Donlee Brussel’s “Cabbie” has really managed to change its overall tone, lending to its a bittersweet taste that I thought worked much better. “Cabbie” still has its flaws, but when it was done, the purpose of “Cabbie” seemed much more focused. “Cabbie” is centered on aspiring cabbie Marty, who is a combination of naive and quirky. He sees the more interesting purpose of cabbies as being a noble profession, and wants desperately to be the nomadic cab driver that travels the city looking for new people to take to their destination.